Manufacture of horseshoe-nails



(No Model.) 2 Sheet-Sheetl.

G. J. GAPEWELL.

MANUFACTURE OF HORSESHOE NAILS. No. 851,5 3. Patented Oct. 26, 1886.

. r u /w. l fufi amm (No Model.) 2 Sheet-Sheet 2.

G. J. CAPEWELL. MANUFACTURE OF HORSESHOE NAILS- NO. 351,573. V PatentedOct. 26, 1886.

,39 5%,; 5AM V d X 4 d r/ I f f I UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE J. GAFEWELL, or CHESHIRE, CONNECTICUT.

MANUFACTURE OF HORSESHOE-NAILS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 351,573, dated October26, 1886.

Application filed July 6, 1886. Serial No. 207,255. (No model.)

one skilled in the art can make and use the same.

My improvements relate, more particularly, to horseshoe-nails anddevices for and methods of making them from cold stock, and my objcct isto make such nails with any desired size of head from nail wire or stockof relativelysmall cross-section.

The horseshoe-nails in common use in Europe have, as compared with theshanks, very large heads, of peculiar shape, that, prior to myimprovements, havepractically limited th eir making to hand-work ornecessitated the heating of the stock when machines are used.

My improvements, which enable me to use cold stock and greatly increasethe product of machines for any given time, as well as to perfect theproduct in point of strength and durability, consistlin forming thenail-shank on a blank of suitable size, then swelling the headsection ofthe blank laterally in dies, and then completing the head -formingbysuccessive blows or pressure in dies of the required shape; in the blankwith an abrupt shoulder where the shank terminates, and in the method ofheading such a blank in a die having a socket with walls of a less slopethan the shoulder has,as referred to the axis of the blank, and indetails of the several dies and'blanks, and of the methods employed inheading the nails, as more particularly hereinafter described, andpointed out in the claims. 7

Referring to the drawings, Figure 1' shows in front and edge view ahorseshoe-nail of the type in common use in the United States. Fig. 2shows in front and edge viewa nail of the kind used in England. Fig. 3shows in front and top View a horseshoe-nail of the kind in use inFrance and other parts of Europe. Fig. 4 shows in plan and end view ablank for making the nail shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 5 shows in plan and edgeview the blank with the nail- 50 shank formed. Fig. 6 is atop or planview of the lower heading-die. Fig. 7 is a view in central verticalsection, on plane denoted by line 00 a: in Fig. 6, through the lowerheadingdie and one form of the upper die. Fig. 8 shows the lower die invertical cross-section on plane denoted byline y 9 of Fig. 6. Fig. 9shows in front and edge view the head part of the nailblanks in thefirst stage of the operation of forming the head. Fig. 10 is a top viewof the finished head made from the blank shown in Fig. 4. Fig. 1.1 showsin plan and edge view the blank suitable for making the size ofnail-head shown in Fig. 2. Fig. 12 is a view in central vertical sectionthrough the lower heading-die, showing the blank fiatwise in place inthe die. Fig. 13 is a view through the heading-die in section on a planeat right angles to the section shown in Fig. 12, showing the blankedgewise in the die. Fig. 14 is a view in central section of theheadingdies, showing the blank edgewise in the dies. Fig. 15 is asimilar view in section of the heading dies, showing the blank flatwise.Fig. 16 is a view in section of the lower heading-die, showing the blankfor the operation of the first set of dies. Fig. 17 is a view in vertical central section of the heading-dies, showing the nail-blank in anadvanced stage in the operation of making the head. Fig. 18 is a planview of the top of the head of the nail shown in Fig. 2. Fig. l9,is aplan View of a sectional form of lower heading-die. Fig. 20 is a view invertical section ofthe same.

In the accompanying drawings, the letter a denotes a nail-blank, whichis an oblong piece of metal cut usually from a long rod or wire of stockthat is rectangular in cross-section. This blank is of suitable sizefrom which to make the nail b, (illustrated in Fig. l of the drawings,)and in the practice of my invention the shank b is first formed from theblank by means of dies that operate on the blank without preliminaryheating. This shank may, however, be formed in any desirable andordinary manner, the head-section b of the blank being leftsubstantially of the dimensions illus trated in Fig. '5. Looking at thenail-blank edgewise, the taper is gradual on the opposite sides from thehead-section into the shank-section, while on the edges of the blank areformed the abrupt shoulders c, where the head-section merges into theshank-section of the nail-blank. It is with the operations or steps informing the head to which the blank is subjected from this stage to thefinal stage that my invention particularly relates, and in forming thehead I make use first of the heading-dies d d. The heading-die d has asocket, e, tapering from its broader opening in the upper face of thedie to the narrower portion on the reverse side of the die. This sockethas on the two sides 0 a substantially straight taper from the upper tothe lower surface of the die, although both sides are relieved slightlynear the bottom of the die, while on one of the remaining sides thelower portion, 6 is cut away at an angle with the upper part of thesloping surface on a plane more nearly conforming to the slope of theopposite side, o which is an even slope from top to bottom. Incompressing the oblong head-section of the blank to the requisite finalshape of the head, there is danger of crippling this section in thefirst blow struck upon it by the heading-dies in old processes;

and this is particularly the case when this headsection b is made solong as to provide a suffi-- cientmassof stock to form a large head. Itis this crippling of the stock in the head-section that I effectuallyprevent by placing the nailblank in the heading-dies with the shouldersc resting against the opposite and regular sloping sides of the socket,as shown in Fig. 8 of the drawings, the blank standing erect in the die,and in this position striking it with a cupped die, (1, the form of thecup or recess in this die d being governed by the size of stock fromwhich the head is to be formed.

The result of the operation of the cupped die upon the nail-blank, asdescribed, is to swell the head-section at about its central portion, 11as shown in Fig. 9, and thus form a brace against bending or cripplingat this part, if it is desirable to finish the head by striking theblank a further blow endwise with a fiat or other die while it is heldin the lower die.

The function of the shoulders c on the nailblank is to support it in thesocket e in the die (1 by the contact of the outer edge of suchshoulders with the sloping sides 6 of the socket, the effect being thatwhen the headsection of the blank is compressed lengthwise by a blow orpressure in the dies the blank will not be pushed far enough into thesocket to cause it to jam, the angular shape of the shoulders at theparts in contact with the sides of the socket providing sufficientresistance to inward movement of the blank to cause the head section tobe compressed lengthwise and-yet leave the blank so loosely held in thedie that it may be readily pushed out when required. If it were not forthe resistance to inward motion thus offered by this peculiarconstruction of the relative parts of the socket in the die and theblank, the latter would be pushed so far through the die as to preventor greatly obstruct its removal, except with extreme difficulty, fromany headingsocket in a solid die of the kind denoted by the letter (7.

The head of the nail b may be finished while the blank is still held inthe socket eby means of a flat die, that causes the head-section to fillout into the socket and conform substantially in shape with it. Thisfinal forming of the head causes the blank, that until this time hasstood substantially erect in the socket, to tip over toward the side ain the socket and the shank to project at a corresponding angle with thelower face of the die. This makes one side of the head conformsubstantially to the plane of the back of the nail while the oppositeside stands at the proper slope to the front of the nail, the top of thehead sloping down ward slightly from the plane of the back of the nail,or beveled. The degree of this latteiu slope or bevel of course dependsupon the relative thickness of the head, and in the case of the nail ofthe type shown at Z) will be very slight. The nail after the head isthus finished is easily pushed out from the sockets in the die.

In making a nail,f, with a proportionally large head the blank which isusually cut from a wire or red of stock that is rectangular incross-section, as in the other case, is used. After forming a shank, f,by any ordinary and convenient process the blank is pressed in a die, d,the socket in which is proportionately larger than the socket used inmaking the nail b in about the ratio by which the head of the nail fexceeds the head of the nail b. The head-section g of this blank issubjected to the action of the cupped die and the socketed die toproduce the peculiar swell (see Fig. 16,) a result precisely the same asthat produced in the operation already described with relation to thehead of the nail b, the shoulders g on the blank 9 having precisely thesame function as in the case of the other nail. The nail-head may besubjected to the operation of a number of (lies having cups or recessesof various shapes prior to the final blow with a flat die, 71, the blankremaining meanwhile in the socket in the die d. The effect of the finalblow tips the nail-blank to one side, as in the case already described,so that the shank projects at an angle from the lower side of the die,as shown in Fig. 17, the bevel or angular slope of the upper side of thedie with relation to the back of the nail being, in the case of the headof the nail f, as shown in Fig. .2, quite considerable.

\Vhen it is desired to make a nail of the shape composed of frustums ofpyramids joined at their bases, of the type shown in Fig. 3, the blankis of course subjected to the action of a flat finishing-die, but thehead is left in one of the intermediate stages substantially in thecondition shown in Fig. 16 of the drawlngs.

The relative area in cross -section of the nail-blank and thefinishednail-head is shown in one instance in Figs. 4 and 10, and in the otherin Figs. 11 and 18.

In order to form a comparativelylargc head,

it was formerly necessary to use a nail-stock of an area incross-section almost equal to that of the head in its largest part, andto draw the nail-shank down from this large stock. This was impossibleunless the stock was heated, anda process that involves this heating ofthe blanks is objectionable, for reasons bearing not only on the timetaken, and on the large number of steps in the process, but also on thequality of the finished article-pointsunfavorable to this process ascompared with my process, in which the stock has no preliminary heating.

By means of my improvement in the method of making the heads, stock ofproper size to be drawn down into a shank without unfavorably affectingthe tenacity and cohesion ofthe fibers of the metal may be used, andalthough this requires a relatively long headseetion to beleft, yet sucha head-section is by my process and devices thoroughly and exactlycompressed while unheated to the desired shape and size, gainingin suchprocessextreme compactness, density, and wearing qualities.

Instead of making use of the peculiar resisting shoulders on the blank,a sectional die,i,di vided in a plane lengthwise of thehead, may beused, the plane of the section passing through the socket i. By backingup one die part by the body of the block and the opposite die part orsection by means of a sliding wedge, k, provision is made for the readyre moval of a nail-blank from the socket after" the head has beenformed. In the form of sectional die shown the movable part i is held inthedie-block by splines taking into grooves in the edges of the block.The wedge moves in and out of its socket in a. plane at substantiallyright angles to the face of the dies, and it may be moved byspring-actuated plungers that, just before the heading-die strikes, comein contact withthe wedge and force the wedge in and the die partstogether. The wedge may be pushed out by any convenient device. Theseseveral dies are of course intended and are adapted for use in anautomatic nail-making machine, and such a machine forms thesubject-matter of an application for a patent to be shortly filed by me.

I claim as my invention- 1. The process or method of forming nailheads,that consists in compressing the shouldered head-section endwise betweensocketed di es, one of which supports the blank by the shoulders and theother engages the outerlend of the blank, all substantially asdescribed.

2. In making nails, the method of preventing the jamming of thenail-blank in the socket, which consists in forming on the lower end ofthe head-section of the blank shoulders with greater angle of slope, asreferred to the axis of the blank, than the supporting-walls of thesocket in .the die, all substantially as described.

' 8. The nail-forming die d, having a socket, c, with the regularsloping wall a, and an opposed wall, e of irregular slope, wherebyanailblank is tipped sidewise in completing a head formed in the die,all substantially as described.

4. An improvement in the method or process of beveling the head of anail in dies, which consists in supporting the nail-blank in a die witha socket having one wall of regular slope and the opposite wall ofirregular slope, all substantially as described.

GEORGE J. OAPEWELL.

Vitnesses:

CHAS. L. BURDETT, H. R. WILLIAMS.

